Record Type	Volume	Congress (dates)
Minute Books	22 vols.	29th-57th (1845-1903)
Docket Books	75 vols.	19th-28th (1825-45), 30th-60th (1847-1909), 62nd-73rd (1911-34)
Bound records	20 vols.	3rd-39th (1794-1867)
Petitions & Memorials	40 ft.	4th (1793-95), 6th-40th (1799-1869), 42nd (1871-73), 45th-51st (1877-91), 54th (1895-97), 59th-61st (1905-11)
Committee Papers	23 ft.	3rd-7th (1793-1803), 9th-75th (1805-1938), 77th-79th (1941-46)
Bill Files	272 ft.	58th-79th (1903-46)
TOTAL:	335 ft. and 117 vols. (28 ft.)
Committee Records Summary Table

 

6.21 The minute books generally record the order of business in committee meetings, noting which committee member introduced a particular claim and usually the nature of the committee report on that claim--whether favorable or unfavorable. The docket books record the petitions and memorials that were referred to the committee. The earliest docket books list the claims in alphabetical order by name of claimant, but later volumes list the documents referred to the committee in chronological order by date of receipt. There are two or three docket volumes for many Congresses. Records of the 36th Congress (1859-61) include eight docket volumes containing transcribed Kansas Claims records.

6.22 Other bound records include several types of documents. Seven volumes contain transcribed committee reports covering the 3d through 21st Congresses (1794-1831). These transcribed reports are "record" copies of original reports found among the committee papers. Few of these reports have been published. There are four volumes of indexes to these reports and the original reports found in the committee papers files.

6.23 Three bound letter books contain transcribed copies of letters sent from the committee to other Government officials during the 21st through 39th Congresses (1829-67). They include letters to the Secretary of the Treasury, the Third Auditor, the Secretary of War, the Postmaster General, the Secretary of the Navy, and various military officers. Another bound volume contains an index to letters sent (1835-47).

6.24 Basically there are two types of unbound records for this committee: the petitions submitted by claimants, including documents providing evidence supporting the claims; and the documents generated by or for the committee, including reports from the Commissioners of Claims or from other Government officials, transcripts of hearings held by the committee, committee reports, and bills or resolutions reported by the committee. These types of documents exist for the entire history of the committee, although the series allocation and kind of information each type of document provides varies over time.

Petition of Andrew Jackson for relief from the whiskey tax, February 12, 1803 (HR7A-F1.1) pages 1 and 4 of 5 from NARA's ARC database.

6.25 Petitions and memorials exist for almost every Congress from the 3d to the 38th (1794-1865). These files consist primarily of the petitions and memorials submitted by claimants, but sometimes documents supporting a claim are included. The files range in size from about 7 inches per Congress before 1813 to about 20 inches per Congress from 1813 to 1865. After the 38th Congress the files are sparse and they no longer contain the bulk of the documents submitted to the committee. At the end of the 39th Congress and thereafter for each Congress through the 57th, the records relating to private legislation were collected from the Claims Committee and all other House committees handling such matters and interfiled in a large series known as "accompanying papers." After the 57th Congress the accompanying papers series was discontinued and the records are usually filed in the committee bill files.

6.26 The committee papers files cover roughly the same period as the petition and memorial files, and for much the same reason. Before the 39th Congress these files contain, almost exclusively, the original committee reports on the petitions and memorials that are found in the petition and memorial files. In some cases, however, the committee papers may include the original petition or memorial, additional original supporting papers or other documentation. This usually happened when the additional documents were sent to the public printer as exhibits for the printed committee report. Whatever the reason for their appearance in the committee papers, the researcher should be aware that original documentation may be found in either of these series--committee papers or petitions and memorials.

6.27 From 1865 to 1903, the committee reports that comprise the bulk of the committee papers are filed along with related documentation in the accompanying papers file for the appropriate Congress, under the name of the claimant. After 1903 they are filed in the committee bill files under the name of the claimant.

6.28 Records found in the early committee papers include an 1822 claim from the State of Tennessee for horses lost in the Seminole campaign (17A-C3.1), a 1832 claim from Samuel Meeker who maintained that he was not paid for goods he supplied to Aaron Burr's 1806 expedition in the south (22A-G3.1), a claim from the State of Alabama for losses sustained in the war with the Creek Indians (25A-D3.1, 27A-G3.1), and a claim from the heirs of Robert Fulton for steam boat service (27A-D3.1, 28A-D3.1).

6.29 Documents from the second half of the century include those of Roger Jones, the commanding officer who burned the arsenal at Harpers Ferry (37A-G1.1), a claim of H. H. McColley for land the War Department appropriated in 1870 for use as a military reservation near Camp McDermott, NM (43A-F5.1), and complaints and affidavits against C.F. Benjamin, a clerk of the Southern Claims Commission (44A-F5.1).

6.30 Records found among the committee papers from 1909-13 include Thomas Hoynes' claim for depredations by the Cheyenne Indians in 1867 (61A-F5.1), Richard Meade's perennial claim for merchandising in Spain in the early 1800's (61A-F5.2), and French Spoilation claims from as early as 1797 that were to be settled under the Act of January 20, 1885 (62A-F3.2). After the 58th Congress most of the claim records are found in the bill files.

6.31 The series of bill files that begins in 1903 consists of files of documents relating to each of the claims referred to the committee. The bill files for each Congress are arranged in alphabetical order by name of claimant, and contain all the documents related to each claim. They may contain the petition or memorial that initiated the claim, correspondence, bills or resolutions, hearing transcripts or printed hearings, committee reports, Commissioner of Claims reports, and a wide variety of support documents.

6.32 Many of the claims from the 20th century are from businesses that performed contract work for the Government such as the 1905 claim from builders of torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers who claimed that they lost money trying to build this new type of vessel (58A-D4), the claim of Willie Cramp & Sons who asserted that the firm lost money building the U.S.S. Indiana (60A-D3), and the Gadsden Contracting Company who claimed that their pile driver had been damaged in 1920 (66A-D4).

Notes

7 C annon, Clarence, Cannon's Precedents of the House of Representatives of the House of Representatives of the United States (Washington. Government Printing Office, 1935). vol. 7, page 814, para. 1992.

8 U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Pensions, Committee Print, "History of the House Committee on Pensions," available in the CIS Committee Prints Microfiche Collection, microfiche # 10969 (hereafter cited as Microfiche # 10969).

9 C annon, p. 813, para. 1992.

Table of Contents

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Bibliographic note: Web version based on Guide to the Records of the United States House of Representatives at the National Archives, 1789-1989: Bicentennial Edition (Doct. No. 100-245). By Charles E. Schamel, Mary Rephlo, Rodney Ross, David Kepley, Robert W. Coren, and James Gregory Bradsher. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 1989.